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Barry Rubin on the Flotilla Problem

The incident at the Israeli blockade of Gaza’s seaport was not caused by Israel’s excessive use of force against peaceful activists. It was not even caused by acceptable use of force by the Israeli commandos. The violence on the ship was caused by a terrorist organization disguising a jihad mission as humanitarian aid to discredit Israel and incite violence and hatred against her. In short, it was a marketing ploy.

Barry Rubin has written several articles about the incident since the entire debacle began. Yesterday I read one of his best articles to date, Humanitarian Aid Ship? Nope, Jihad Ship: No Aid for Gazans on the Mavi Marmara (link at bottom). I strongly urge you to read it because it not only gives an excellent summary of the incident to date, but also provides links for factual reference. Here’s a preview to whet your appetite,

How many truckloads of humanitarian aid on the seven flotilla ships? Thirty-four plus 2000 tons of cement. How many truckloads did Israel deliver to Gaza that same week? Answer: 484.

Would the materials carried on some of the ships help the people of Gaza? Sure. There were wheelchairs, mobility scooters for the disabled, crutches, hospital beds, medicine, and clothing, and hospital equipment.

But if the intention was simply to deliver these items they could have been unloaded in Egypt and everything (including the militants on board carrying lots of money) could have gone into Gaza. Or they could have been unloaded in Israel, inspected, and anything not connected with terrorism could have gone into Gaza.

But the goal, of course, was to destroy the blockade, help Hamas poliically, and make Israel look bad.

It’s a shame that Israel has to go on such a strong defensive because the media provides more opinion than fact, but Barry Rubin’s work is stellar and a great effort to clearing Israel’s name. Please pass the article on to your friends and family and subscribe to his blog at http://rubinreports.blogspot.com.